After Maison Blanche

Chapter 7

It was two days before John was released from the hospital. Two days in which Marlena lived at the hospital with him, refusing to leave his side. When the doctors began to discuss his release, Marlena begged Shane to find them a place to go. Going back to Salem in this condition was not an option. They would immediately be accosted by family, and friends who would want to know what happened, and while well-meaning, it would overwhelm them both. She couldn't face Roman's wrath and his hatred. She couldn't handle Sami's vitriol. Sami was already angry because of the affair, so was Roman, and they wouldn't stop to understand the situation before passing their own brand of judgement. Marlena and John needed time. Time to get themselves back together, so that they could rejoin their families in Salem, able to handle whatever was hurled at them.

Within two hours of John's hospital release, Shane had them safely ensconced in a town house in the French Quarter of New Orleans. It was only then, when Marlena knew for certain they were safe, that she seemed to fall apart. Her frame shook with anxiety. Memories of every horror she'd ever experienced started to replay in her mind. She tried to calm herself. They were safe. John was safe. She couldn't break down in front of them. So, while John spoke softly with Shane in the living room, Marlena wandered off to the shower, intent on washing away every memory of Stefano's hands on her body.

A few moments later, John softly closed the door on Shane's retreating back, and he turned to face a small, but beautifully furnished, sitting room. A carved fireplace took up much of one wall, and the design followed 18th century French colonial trends. It was beautiful, the type of home a man would have provided a mistress a hundred years earlier. It had several bedrooms, a formal room, and a garden in the back. It was the perfect place for a romantic getaway. John shook his head. He could not start thinking like that. Marlena had been trying for months to repair her marriage with Roman. John knew he had to let her go. Taking a deep breath, he went to find Marlena.

In the last few hours, she had grown progressively quieter, and he was concerned. As John approached the bedroom to check on her, he heard the shower water running, and the sound of soft sobs coming from the ensuite bathroom. John could almost feel Marlena's pain echoing from the confines of the steam filled room. Her wracking sobs vibrated off of the walls. Those sobs told the story of a deeper grief than she had shown him in the last two days, and John's heart broke for her all over again. She had been his rock over the last month. He knew with certainty that without her love, care, and fierce loyalty, he would have died. She saved his life, and John could only imagine the horrors she had hid from him in the process.

He remembered the rage he felt as he watched Stefano's clumsy hands paw at her body in lust. His mind was screaming, She's mine!, while physically all he could do was watch helplessly, and scream, No! at the monitor. He quietly walked toward the bathroom, opening the door wider. John stood immobile, watching with tear filled eyes. She stood in the shower crying as hot, steamy water trailed over her body. John stepped into the room, making a decision as he approached the glass of the shower, and watched her shoulders shake, as she heaved in huge gasps of air. Removing his clothing, he slowly opened the shower door, wearing only a pair of black boxer briefs. Stepping close to her body, letting her feel his heat before he touched her, he reached for her. Marlena turned into his arms, clinging to him, shoving her face in his neck. She gripped his back with her fingernails as if he were a lifeline.

John held her trembling body, and roughly whispered near her ear, "Marlena? Doc?" His arms held her body close to his as his hands move soothingly over back.

"I can't get him off me..." she gasped, barely audible, as she struggled to breath. "I can't get him off me...it's like the time...it's the same as when Kellam..." she sobbed, lifting her head, and staring up at him with tear filled eyes. John looked over her body, seeing scratches, and bite marks on her breasts. There were finger imprints on her thighs, and he wished he had just killed Stefano rather than giving him over to the ISA. Stefano had marked her body, in his clumsy aggressive attempt at love making. He'd hurt her, and John hated him more in that moment than he ever hated anyone before.